This application is based on, and incorporates herein by reference, Japanese Patent Application Nos. 2001-111928 filed on Apr. 10, 2001; 2001-163156 filed on May 30, 2001; and 2002-038466 filed on Feb. 15, 2002.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicular air-conditioning duct structure and forming method therefor and an electrical wiring fixing structure for fixing electrical wiring internally of the vehicular instrument board and dashboard.
2. Description of the Related Art
Inside of an instrument board forward of a passenger compartment (in the vicinity of a partition wall for dividing between the engine room and the passenger compartment), a beam member (reinforcing bar) extending with respect to the width of a vehicle is provided. In addition to a reinforcing member arranged across the vehicle""s width direction, an electrical wiring and an electrical wiring harness is provided. The reinforcing member is for strengthening the body of the vehicle and for supporting a steering structure of the vehicle. The beam member plays a part as a structural member for supporting a steering shaft and as a structural support member for the vehicle. On the reinforcing structural member (reinforcing beam), apparatuses such as electrical wiring and a wiring harness are mounted. The electrical wiring or the wiring harness can alternatively or coincidentally be mounted to the instrument board. Generally, clips are used to mount the wiring and the wiring harness.
An interior air conditioning unit of a vehicular air conditioning apparatus is normally arranged at the central portion with respect to the width of the vehicle inside of the instrument board forward of the passenger compartment. Conditioned air adjusted in temperature by the interior air conditioning unit is blown off from the center face blow-off port arranged in the central portion with respect to the width of the vehicle of the instrument board toward the face portion of an occupant in the central portion in the passenger compartment. The conditioned air is blown off from the side face blow-off ports arranged in the left and right ends with respect to the width of the vehicle of the instrument board toward the faces of occupants in the left and right ends in the passenger compartment.
Accordingly, an air conditioning duct (side face duct) is necessary, which leads the conditioned air from the air conditioning unit in the passenger compartment positioned in the central portion with respect to the width of the vehicle within the instrument board to the side face blow-off ports positioned in the left and right ends in the passenger compartment.
The air conditioning duct is generally arranged so as to extend nearly parallel with the beam member inside of the instrument board. It is desirable that a packing, such as a forming resin, is used as an insulator inside the duct or around the outside of the duct, or both, to heat-insulate the duct. The packing will also serve to attenuate vibrations that propagate in the air conditioning duct, and for absorbing noises propagating in the duct. In order to fix the packing on the inner surface of the duct, the packing must be adhered with an adhesive, or the like, and this process is troublesome.
The air conditioning duct requires a mounting space separately from the beam member inside of the instrument board, resulting in making the vehicle mounting properties of the air conditioning duct worse.
In view of the foregoing, as a constitution for including the air conditioning duct in the beam member, a constitution has been proposed so that mounting spaces for the air conditioning duct and the beam member are used in common thereby to improve the vehicle mounting properties of the air conditioning duct.
According to the Related Art, the air conditioning duct is molded in advance, and the molded duct is inserted from the sides of the beam member (the left and right ends with respect to the width of the vehicle). The inserting work of the air conditioning duct is very cumbersome. It is necessary to make a sectional area of the air conditioning duct sufficiently smaller than that of the beam member in order to facilitate the duct inserting work. However, the blow-off air quantity of the air-conditioning air caused by the small sectional area, and the air conditioning performance is lowered.
According to a further proposal described in Laid-Open French Patent Application No. 2789043, a beam member is formed to be divided into two upper and lower beam member bodies, and the beam member bodies and the air conditioning duct are mounted an air conditioning duct is molded in advance, the air conditioning duct is sandwiched between the two upper and lower bodies, and then the two upper and lower beam members bodies are joined integrally.
Continuing, for achieving further space saving and thinner or smaller structures, compared with the structure in which an air conditioning duct is arranged within a tubular reinforcing member to save a space (Japanese Translation of PCT Application No. H8-502002), there has been heretofore known an air conditioning duct of the structure in which a reinforcing member serves as part of the air conditioning duct. In the structure, the functions of heat insulation, vibration attenuation, and noise absorption are required, since the material with high rigidity such as metal used for the reinforcing member serving as part of the air conditioning duct is generally high in heat conductivity, conducive to vibration propagation, and sound transmitting, propagation or reflectivity.
When the clips of the prior art are used for fixing the electrical wiring, the fixing must be done while a user holds, grips and positions the wiring by hand. This creates a difficult situation for an installer. Out of the structure for improving the fixing workability, the structure in which there is provided a housing member extending along the path of the electric wiring in the instrument board and accommodating the electric wiring as described in JP-A-52683, the cost for the housing member is higher than that of the clips. Further, as in the invention described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,712,764, if the electric wiring is molded to the instrument board, the fitting position of the electric wiring on the instrument board has to be designed depending on design of the instrument board.
Therefore, the air conditioning duct is required to be molded as a single body. In addition, it is necessary that the cumbersome mounting work in which the beam member bodies and the air conditioning duct are mounted, while aligning the beam member bodies and the air conditioning duct, thus increasing the manufacturing cost.
With regard to that described above, it is an object of the present invention to reduce a cost of the air conditioning duct structure included in a vehicle beam member.
A further object of the invention is to provide an air conditioning duct structure in which an internal space of the beam member is effectively used as a space for accommodating an air conditioning duct.
It is another object of the present invention to produce an air conditioning duct that attenuates vibration and noise and thermally insulates the inner surface of such an air conditioning duct.
It is yet another object of the present invention to improve the ability of securing electric wiring to a reinforcing member.
For achieving the above-described objects, according to a first embodiment of the invention, a vehicular air-conditioning duct structure includes a beam member having at least two beam member bodies, also called beam members, divided in the longitudinal direction of the beam member, and a material for a duct integrated on an inner surface of the beam member bodies. The at least two beam member bodies are combined to form a tubular closed sectional shape. It is not necessary to mold the air conditioning duct into a duct shape in advance. Therefore, the molding step and the step of mounting the air conditioning duct into the beam member are unnecessary to considerably improve the productivity for manufacturing the air conditioning duct structure. Moreover, since the material for the duct is integrated on the material surface of the beam member bodies, it is not necessary to set an air gap for facilitating the duct inserting work into the beam member, and the whole space of the beam member is effectively used as a space for the air conditioning duct.
According to a second aspect of the invention, the material for the duct is laminated and adhered onto the inner surface of the beam member bodies. According to a third aspect of the invention, the material for the duct is integrally mounted by blowing a fluid material on the inner surface of the beam member bodies. Since the material for the duct is fixedly adhered directly on the surface of the material for the beam member, the yield of the material for the duct is improved. According to a fourth aspect of the invention, the material for the duct is integrated on the surface of a sheet material for the beam member and the material for the beam member is bent into a semi-tubular shape so that the material for the duct is positioned inside to form at least two beam member bodies.
According to a fifth aspect of the invention, the material for the duct is integrated on the surface of the sheet material for the beam member, the material for the beam member is bent into a semi-tubular shape so that the material for the duct is positioned inside to form one of at least two beam member bodies. Another beam member body is formed in the form of maintaining nearly a flat, planer shape of the material for the beam member integrated with the material for the duct.
According to a sixth aspect of the invention, a vehicular air-conditioning duct structure included in a beam member is molded into a predetermined shape. Since the duct bodies are molded into a predetermined shape in advance and are incorporated into the beam member bodies, the incorporating step requires working of the duct bodies, unlike the first to fifth aspects.
In the seventh aspect of the invention, one beam member body has the characteristics of the first aspect of the invention, and the other beam member body has the characteristics of the sixth aspect of the invention, thereby exhibiting a combination of the operation and effect of the first aspect and the sixth aspect of the invention.
According to an eighth aspect of the invention, the material for the duct comprises a material having at least thermal insulating properties. According to a ninth aspect of the invention, the material for the duct comprises a heat insulating and sound absorbing material.
According to a tenth aspect of the invention, joining surfaces, to which the material for the beam member is exposed directly, are set to the end surfaces of at least two beam member bodies, and the end surfaces of at least two beam member bodies are joined at the joining surfaces. In the joining surfaces of the beam member bodies, the surfaces of the material for the beam member are placed in contact with each other directly and joined, and the soft material for the duct is not interposed between the joining surfaces. Therefore, there is sufficient joining strength and means such as welding may be employed.
According to an eleventh aspect of the invention, gradually changed portions for gradually changing the tubular closed sectional shape in the vicinity of the joining surfaces are formed adjacent to the joining surfaces, and the material for the duct is compressed by the gradually changed portions.
According to a twelfth aspect of the invention, the material for the duct is integrated on the whole surface of one side of the sheet material for the beam member, and the end surfaces of at least two beam member bodies are joined with the material for the duct interposed therebetween. This increases a sealing function of the beam members.
According to a thirteenth aspect of the invention, closed portions for closing an internal space of the beam member are molded integrally on both ends of the beam member bodies. Thereby, the internal space of the beam member is closed without arranging a separate cap member in both ends in the longitudinal direction of the beam member. According to a fourteenth aspect of the invention, separate side brackets are joined to both ends of the beam member.
According to a fifteenth aspect of the invention, side brackets are integrally molded so as to be spread radially outward on both ends of the beam member bodies, and openings at both ends of the beam member are closed by a separate cap member.
According to a sixteenth aspect of the invention, the beam member is arranged inside of a vehicle instrument board and is used as a structural member for supporting a vehicle steering system, and both ends, in the longitudinal direction of the beam member, are secured to the vehicle body by side brackets.
According to a seventeenth aspect of the invention, wiring holding portions for holding vehicle wiring along the longitudinal direction of the beam member are molded integrally with the beam member. The wiring holding portions may be integrally molded on only one (lower beam member body) of two beam member bodies.
According to an eighteenth aspect of the invention, wiring protective members arranged inside of the wiring holding portions to coat or surround the vehicle wiring are integrally molded with the material for the duct to protect the wiring.
According to a nineteenth aspect of the invention, a wiring protective member arranged inside of the wiring holding portions to coat or surround the vehicle wiring are molded separately from the material for the duct.
According to a twentieth aspect of the invention, after a ventilation path partitioning member for partitioning a ventilation path inside of the beam member is incorporated between two beam member bodies, the end surfaces of two beam member bodies are joined.
According to a twenty-first aspect of the invention, an opening shape on the ventilation path outlet side of the ventilation path partitioning member is made to be a flat shape along the longitudinal direction of the beam member.
According to a twenty-second aspect of the invention, a pitch of a joining portion for joining the end surfaces of at least two beam member bodies is set to a value not more than 200 mm. According to the experiment and study made by the present invention, it has been found that when the pitch P of the joining portion is set to a value not more than 200 mm, the rigidity of the beam member increases to be able to make the resonant frequency higher. Therefore, vibrations caused by the resonant phenomenon of the beam member when in the mounted state on the vehicle, are suppressed.
According to a twenty-third aspect of the invention, a method of forming a vehicle air-conditioning duct structure included in a beam member is proposed.
According to a twenty-fourth aspect of the invention, a sheet material is used as a material for the duct, the sheet material for the duct is laminated on the surface of the sheet material for the beam member to bond the materials to each other. Thereby, the vehicular air conditioning duct structure is formed by using the sheet material as a material for the beam member and the material for the duct.
According to a twenty-fifth aspect of the invention, a fluid material is used as a material for the duct, and the fluid material is blown directly on the surface of the sheet material for the beam member to integrally adhere the material for the duct.
Continuing, for achieving the above-described objects, there is provided an arrangement wherein air passages extending in the vehicle width direction (across the width of the vehicle) internally of a vehicular instrument board are formed by joining a first division member and a second division member and divided by a surface extending in the vehicle width direction. A sheet member located on the inner surface of at least one division member out of the first and second division members and having at least one function out of the functions of attenuating vibrations propagating one division member, absorbing noises propagating within the air passages, and heat-insulating air within the air passages. The sheet member is normally put between the first and second division members and fixed.
According to the present invention, the other division member out of the first and second division members is joined with a reinforcing member whereby an opening of the reinforcing member whose section perpendicular to the vehicle width direction is an open sectional shape, is to be closed by the other division member. Since the reinforcing member serves as part of the air conditioning duct, further space saving and weight reduction can be achieved as compared with the structure of the air conditioning duct described in Japanese Translation of PCT Application No. H8-502002.
For minimization and weight reduction of the reinforcing member, preferably, the reinforcing member is made of metal (for example, such as magnesium, aluminum, iron, etc.). However, the reinforcing member of the present invention is not limited to be made of metal, but may be made of resin such as glass-contained polypropylene.
Since foaming resin is a material excellent in the heat-insulating function and the noise absorbing function, the sheet member may be suitably made of a foaming resin as in the invention of claim. Further, where the sheet member is provided to fix the electric wiring, the foaming resin may be used to thereby enhance the effect for protecting the electric wiring.
Preferably, the air passages formed by the first and second division members cause air to flow toward at least one blow port opening out of the side face blow port opening and the side defroster blow port opening. The side face blow port opening is a known blow port opening provided on both ends, in the vehicle""s width direction, of the instrument board to blow air-conditioning air toward the upper half of the occupant""s body. The side defroster blow port opening is a known blow port opening provided on both ends of the vehicle instrument board to blow air-conditioning air toward the inside of the side window glass of the vehicle.
Further areas of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description provided hereinafter. It should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating the preferred embodiment of the invention, are intended for purposes of illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention.